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Emergency Services and Chest Pain

If you are experiencing chest pains, there is no time to waste.

Our Emergency Department has a dedicated Chest Pain Center for patient observation. The 6-bed Center takes a systematic approach to patient management that reduces time to treatment during the critical early stages of a heart attack, when treatments are most effective. Here, EKGs are provided within minutes, and an Interventional Cardiologist is on call 24/7 to perform advanced cardiac procedures.

Induced hypothermia

Holy Cross Hospital has added a state-of-the-art device to its Emergency Department and Critical Care Units that lowers the body temperature in patients suffering from a variety of traumatic events, including stroke, cardiac arrest and spinal cord injury.By adding the CoolGard 3000 intravascular cooling system, Holy Cross Hospital joins an elite group of hospitals around the world that are adopting this life-saving technology.

Induced hypothermia has proven to be safe and effective and, in 2005, the American Heart Association recommended that physicians implement it in patients who suffer from cardiac arrest.Other clinical applications where the CoolGard 3000 has been used include fever control, intracranial pressure management,acute liver failure and heat stroke.

"Research has consistently shown that therapeutic hypothermia can lessen or prevent neurological damage due to cardiac arrest and subsequent oxygen loss to the brain," said Mark Caputo,MD, Medical Director of Emergency Medicine at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale."The intravascular approach allows us to regulate body temperature to a degree of precision we've never seen before."

"We owe it to our community to provide the best tools for improving outcomes for patients suffering from traumatic events," added Dr. Caputo. "After careful review of our capabilities, we decided that we would not be providing the best care to patients without adding this proven technology to ourICU.We hope other hospitals follow our lead and adopt intravascular cooling technology so that everyone can gain rapid access if they ever need it."

Cardiac CT

Holy Cross Hospital was the first Florida hospital to offer the 256 iCT for Cardiac CT Angiography. This state-of-the-art technology offers doctors and their patients a powerful tool in assessing coronary artery disease and heart attack risk. Our scanner is capable of providing the most detailed images of the heart through quick exams that offer physicians a view of the coronary arteries at incredible levels of detail. Most important, these images allow physicians to detect possible life-threatening illnesses before they become life threatening.